Networked lighting control has become increasingly popular due to the variety of illumination conditions that can be created. Color Kinetics Incorporated offers a full line of networked lighting systems as well as controllers and light-show authoring tools. Control signals for lighting systems are generally generated and communicated through a network to a plurality of lighting systems. Several lighting systems may be arranged in a lighting network and information pertaining to each lighting device may be communicated to through the network. Each lighting device or system may have a unique identifier or address such that it only reads and react to information directed at its particular address.
There are several methods used for generating networked lighting control signals. A control-signal generating tool can offer a graphical user interface where lighting shows and sequences can be authored. The user can set up series of addressed lighting systems and then create a lighting control signal that is directed to the individually addressed lighting systems. Such an authoring system can be used to generate coordinated effects between lighting systems or within groups of lighting systems. One particularly popular lighting effect that would be difficult to program without an authoring system is chasing a rainbow of colors down a corridor.
To produce a coordinated lighting effect a user must conventionally have knowledge of where the lighting systems reside as well as knowing the particular addresses each of the lighting systems. It remains difficult to program lighting effects that are designed to move through an area other than in a line or within a group of lighting systems. It would be useful to provide a system that allowed a user to generate and communicate lighting control signals based on the desired effect in an area.